This is the class blog for Eng 1102 at GA Tech called "Fiction, Human Rights, and Social Responsibility." The purpose of this blog is to extend our discussion beyond the classroom and to become aware of human rights issues that exist in the world today and how technology has played a role in either solving or aggravating them. Blogs will be a paragraph long (250 words) and students will contribute once every three weeks according to class number. Entries must be posted by Friday midnight.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

The Situation in Israel

Though Israel is often viewed as unstable by the West, it is seen as a beacon of stability and normalcy in Northern Africa. Refugees from Eritrea (just north of Ethiopia) and Sudan have recently flooded into the nation, seeking asylum from problems in their home countries. Israel, however, has had enough. Israeli police forces have threatened to detain the asylum seekers and sentence them to long stints in Israeli jail as an effort to force the refugees out of their country. Eritrean asylum seekers, often fleeing from extreme punishments for skipping mandatory military service, are generally offered asylum in most of the free world. Sudanese refugees are treated the same, as they are running from a genocide in their home land (well, the UN of course refuses to call it a genocide). Israel, it seems, has decided to take a hard-line approach, doing everything short of physically escorting refugees across the border to try and kick them out. Then there is the problem of the prolong detention of refugees. The refugees are being held on trumped-up charges, or no charges at all, presenting a serious issue in the area of Human Rights. In response, Israel's Attorney General ordered the expulsion of all Eritrean asylum seekers until "a range of legal issues had been clarified." How does this help? Expelling people who came to you for help, just sending them into far worse conditions in the surrounding countries doesn't seem to help anything. As Human Rights Watch has repeatedly told the Israeli government, they should not expel the refugees, let them stay (out of jail, mind you) while the legal issues are sorted out. Sending them away not only gives a bad reputation to Israel, but also puts thousands of people in significant danger.